Many of the Nation School Districts are returning to the classroom with feared immigrant families of the Trump Administration of undocumented migrants, according to educators, experts and parents who spoke with ABC News.
The school districts of Los Angeles and Chicago, the largest and third public school systems in the country, respectively, have returned with new orientations and protections for immigrant families distrusting federal government measures to curb illegal immigration.
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) said that it will prohibit immigration and customs agents (ICE) or the Federal Police of the Law to access their facilities unless the agents produce a criminal order signed by a federal judge.
More than half a million unified students in Los Angeles are back at school with the police force of the district that is associated with the Local Police in an effort to protect their immigrant students. Lausd’s superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, emphasized that the district will provide students with a safe space “regardless of the state of immigration.”
Parents and students arrive during the first day of school while teachers and volunteers patulate for the presence of immigration and customs compliance agents in the ninety and third primary school in Los Angeles, on August 14, 2025.
Daniel Cole/Reuters
This occurs when immigrants throughout the country are afraid of deportation of school campuses as the administration continues to promote its signature campaign promise.
During the first months of the president’s second mandate, Esmeralda Alday, former executive director of Dual Language and English as a second -language migrant education for the Independent School District of San Antonio, said that fear permeated immigrant families in their district unlike anything he had seen before.
Some mixed status families, where one or both parents are undocumented, but children are US citizens, do not register the district after Trump assumed the position, according to Alday. She said that it was not only due to ICE’s perceived threats, but some families also received arrest orders by mail.
“It comes to our families from all angles,” Alday told ABC News. “It is affecting our families from all angles, almost leaving them with no choice but to deport.”
The Co -founder of Immschools, Viridiana Carrizales, told ABC News that these families now fear to leave their children at school, some will not even leave their homes, because they run the risk of being arrested. She affirmed that the Administration is not only aimed at undocumented immigrants with criminal record but also immigrants in general.
“They don’t want our children,” Carrizales said. “They do not want immigrant children in schools, they don’t want them to educate and that is what is happening. We have parents who do not take their children to school, we have parents who withdraw their children from programs that are critical for their children,” he added.
You can see a UTLA sign in support of immigrant students at a Bungalow door at the sepulveda high school in North Hills during the first day of school, August 14, 2025.
Sarah Reindewirtz/Medaks Group/Los Angeles Daily News through Getty Images
Carrizales, whose organization is associated with school districts to create more cozy and safe schools for K-12 immigrant students, said: “Do not make these children receive the support they need will end up hurting us all.”
But as families and school officials prepare for possible repressions in this school year, the national security secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, told ABC News that no arrests have been made on the school lands of K-12 during Trump’s second mandate and the ICE has not yet assaulted any K-12 campus. According to McLaughlin, most DHS arrests so far have previous criminal convictions or pending criminal charges against them.
McLaughlin also warned that there are no K-12 students who are American citizens should fear deportation or ice raids, even if their parents are undocumented.
“If you are here in the United States legally, there is no immigration application, because you are legally in the country,” he said.
On Trump’s first day in office, DHS raised his long -standing restrictions that prevented the ice from making raids in schools and other sensitive areas, including churches and hospitals. McLaughlin said the decision was made to ensure that immigration agents were not hindered by doing their job.
“This should actually be something good for all communities,” he said. “Why would you want a criminal to take a safe port in a hospital or worship house or a school? I mean, why would you want someone to go?
The Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs of DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, speaks during a press conference at the ICE headquarters, in Washington, on May 21, 2025.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
During the last school year and more recently during summer learning, Carrizales and Alday said that the absenteeism of the students shot in the Texas school districts for fear of the Federal Police. As fears continue, many schools are worried that the projected registration for this school year can decrease, according to Carrizales.
The assistance has also affected Lausd, said the member of the Tanya Ortiz Franklin Board. Families are now browsing the virtual learning options offered by the district.
Franklin said that undocumented families have increased anxiety to visit schools during the night back to school and other obligations of parents and teachers.
“They are fighting with the question of whether I get to this event that could be useful for my son or I assure me that I am here for them when they get home at the end of the day and it is obvious for those who really fear,” Franklin told ABC News.
“It is impregnating brown communities, in particular, [and] Our communities of black immigrants, our communities of Asian immigrants, of which there are many in Los Angeles, ”he added.
